Flutist wins preliminary talent award at Miss S.C. Pageant

A flutist with fast fingers grabbed a preliminary talent award in the final night of preliminary competition at the Miss South Carolina Pageant Thursday.

Miss Charleston, Patrice Snow of Lexington, played Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee/Scheherazade," a piece with an impossibly quick series of notes running up and down the scale.

Wearing a red halter-necked dress, Snow nailed the piece and ended on a confident note, tossing her flute into the air and catching it. For her win, Snow will receive a $500 college scholarship.

The 23-year-old is a Columbia College graduate with a degree in political science, and she aspires to become an attorney and to run for political office on the state and national levels.

The night's other winner was Miss Lexington, Lauren Vick of Lexington, who earned a preliminary physical fitness (swimsuit) award wearing an aqua-colored bikini.

Vick, 21, is a senior at the University of South Carolina majoring in business with a minor in electronic broadcasting. She will receive a $400 scholarship for her win.

The pageant does not award preliminary awards in the evening wear competition.

Other preliminary awards this week went to Miss Electric City, Laura Camille Thomas of Taylors, who sang "Summertime" from the opera "Porgy and Bess"; and Miss North Charleston, Jessica Eddins of Charleston, who sang "And This is My Beloved" from the Broadway musical "Kismet"; and swimsuit winners Miss Greater Greer, Mandy Ticknor of Greer who wore an electric-blue bikini and Miss Upstate, Michelle Yvette Gwinn of Taylors, with a white bikini.

During preliminary competition, talent counted for 30 percent of contestants' scores, and swimwear and evening wear accounted for 10 percent each. Contestants also answered an onstage question for another 10 percent of their score. The remaining 40 percent was earned this past weekend in a private interview with the five-person judges' panel.

Saturday night the top 10 contestants will be announced and they will compete again in swimwear, eveningwear and talent. Miss South Carolina 2003 will be crowned at the end of the night, and she will win $20,000 in scholarship money and a host of other prizes.

• Actress Dixie Carter will take part in the pageant's final night Saturday. Carter and her husband, Hal Holbrook, will come here to represent the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, a group established to promote volunteerism. Carter will present awards to 63 Miss South Carolina and Miss Teen South Carolina contestants and Palmetto Princesses based on their volunteer work.

• Even though the Miss South Carolina contestants are sequestered from family and friends this week, they're definitely not forgotten.

Just ask Dustin Tyner of Chesterfield. The 13-year-old pageant volunteer has the job of delivering gifts to each of the contestants. All gifts for contestants must be sent to the misses at their hotel, so each day, Tyner uses a cart to deliver from the front desk at Best Value Inn and Suites to the contestants' rooms.

Each time he makes a trip he loads his cart with about seven bouquets of flowers and two bags full of gifts, and he makes between eight and 20 trips each day.

"I'm pretty sure every one of the girls gets something every day," he said.

Flowers, balloons and stuffed animals are the traditional gifts, but once in a while a contestant receives a more unusual token. Tyner said one contestant who likes cows received a cowbell as a gift this week.

• For information on all 41 contestants plus complete coverage of the Miss S.C. pageant, visit the Herald-Journal's special online pageant section at www.goupstate.com/pageant

Susan Orr can be reached at 877-3225, 574-5980 or susan.orr@shj.com.

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